NY Times: Obama Colluded with Drug Companies to Keep Prices High

Yet another reason why big companies in the U.S. need to be de-regulated from big government interests. It reminds me of when during a debate Ron Paul
said that after the housing bubble we should have let Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the auto industry fail, instead of bailing them out. He was
absolutely right. It would of caused them to go into bankruptcy and this artificial answer of giving them inflated money wouldn't have prolonged more
problems for us down the road, thereby creating another bust in our not so distant future. Who here thinks its a good idea to let your government
decide wether or not to give money to a large mortgage company that is failing? They aren't smart enough to do that! They don't even read the bills
that they pass!
Ron Paul wants to get the government out of the market so that the market can determine prices based on consumer demand and become truly competitive
again. If healthcare were allowed to be privatized, it would be more affordable. It is going to get to the point in this country, where only the rich
are going to be able to afford healthcare if the government keeps sticking their hands in it and getting their share of the profits, or 'distributing
the wealth'.

I remember people telling me one time "Im glad they bailed out the auto industry- a lot of people needed them to survive".

I was just flabbergasted.

If they let those guys fail like they should have, then more competitive buisnesses could have came in and re-established a new industry that would
not be on the taxpayers dime, AND would have created LOTS of BRAND NEW JOBS. Esp. for those people who had been let off. They could have just switched
companies. Probably better pay too since you are not dealing with a failing company.

Edit to add- Sorry this post wasnt on topic- Just a response to a question posed.

On topic- Hospitals in Vegas are in trouble. Laying off all kinds of workers. Majority of them are asking for pensions instead of being kept on. New
systems are being implemented. All hell is breaking lose because these Hospitals HAVE to take so many uninsured patients. Thing is, all that money
falls on the hospital. Govt Law and they can not do anything about it. Talking Millions of dollars per Hospital because of uninsured patients. Most of
whom, are illegal immigrants.
I remember that one hospital had to fly a patient out of the country because it cost them less money that way then to keep them there. It was costing
them to the amount of 10,000 a day. Not on the taxpayers dime, but on a private companies dime.
When this happens. People get fired.
Now you are waiting longer to see a doctor.

Yet another reason why big companies in the U.S. need to be de-regulated from big government interests. It reminds me of when during a debate Ron Paul
said that after the housing bubble we should have let Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the auto industry fail, instead of bailing them out. He was
absolutely right. It would of caused them to go into bankruptcy and this artificial answer of giving them inflated money wouldn't have prolonged more
problems for us down the road, thereby creating another bust in our not so distant future. Who here thinks its a good idea to let your government
decide wether or not to give money to a large mortgage company that is failing? They aren't smart enough to do that! They don't even read the bills
that they pass!
Ron Paul wants to get the government out of the market so that the market can determine prices based on consumer demand and become truly competitive
again. If healthcare were allowed to be privatized, it would be more affordable. It is going to get to the point in this country, where only the rich
are going to be able to afford healthcare if the government keeps sticking their hands in it and getting their share of the profits, or 'distributing
the wealth'.

My God! You're delusional. Government to a certain degree still listens to the people. BIG PHARMA is BIG BUSINESS and it does not listen at all.
Insurance companies fall under the same umbrella, Their business is PROFIT. There is nothing to stop competing BIG PHARMA and BIG INSURANCE from
colluding and price fixing. That's where government comes in.

Seriously don't be naive!

There is a demand for affordable healthcare, and government is the extension of the people's desires that it gets there.

Originally posted by beezzer
Could this account for the drug shortage also?
ie; Create a problem, then offer a solution?

EXACTLY what I was thinking! It sure looks like it could be!

Originally posted by beezzer
This is career ending.

A lot of things Obama has done or has been into should have been 'career ending'.
His 20 years at Rev. Wrights cult in Chicago should have ended Obama's career
before it even started. Unfortunately .. the MSM does't report what it should.

I'm amazed that the left wing NY Times, who has been in Obamas back pocket,
actually came out with the information. Musta' been a falling out between the NY Times
and 'Mr Transparency' somewhere behind the scenes.

There are those die-hard Obama-bots who believe that He walks on watter. Oblivious apparently to any of the double dealings, lies, or failed promises
he used to get elected. Since Obama has taken office, there has been a shroud of darkness on just about everything he has done, secret closed door
meetings, pushing through laws under executive order, pretty much against any logical thinking American and despite them. Still the Obama-bots hold
fast to their illusion that has been prepared for them, .... hook, line and sinker. I can scarcely believe that any of the American public that has
been lied to or cheated, still holds fast to this mouth-boogie, and that coming from the White House. Obama HAS to GO....... and it's hopefully
looking like the public is waking up and starting to examine and hold accountable this fast talking crooked administration........ all of them,
Congress too. If America follows the path set by this administration, it is doomed, and we shall never see American values or our standard of living
again. We shall descend into poverty and millions will both perish and loose all that they have worked a lifetime for.

Originally posted by burntheships
Once again the Hope and Change President Obama who had promised to negotiate on
C-Span, is instead found to have cut a closed-door deal with a powerful lobby, Big Pharma..

What ever happened to this?

"I want to put an end to the game playing.”

A new trove of emails shows President Barack Obama’s White House agreed to help drug companies block a proposal to bring down medicine prices so
they would back Obama’s healthcare plan. www.newsmax.com...

The emails show that Big Pharma cut a deal with the White House, they sought
confirmation that President Obama would stop a proposal intended to bring down medicine prices.

On June 3, 2009, one of the lobbyists e-mailed Nancy-Ann DeParle, the president’s health care adviser.
Ms. DeParle reassured the lobbyist. Although Mr. Obama was overseas, she wrote, she and other top officials had “made decision, based on how
constructive you guys have been, to oppose importation” on a different proposal. ...

And so it happened...

Just like that, Mr. Obama’s staff signaled a willingness to put aside support for the
reimportation of prescription medicines at lower prices and by doing so solidified a compact
with an industry the president had vilified on the campaign trail. Central to Mr. Obama’s drive to
remake the nation’s health care system was an unlikely collaboration with the pharmaceutical
industry that forced unappealing trade-offs.
www.nytimes.com...

Well President Obama, in your own words:

“That’s an example of the same old game playing in Washington.
You know, I don’t want to learn how to play the game better.

But it is good that you reposted this. Americans should know that Obama is not the "saviour" they thought he was... In fact he is not only
corrupt but so far has been the WORSE President in U.S. history who has done some of the worse things to turn this once great nation into a
Socialist/Fascist state...

Originally posted by jacobe001
That's pretty much what happens when you privatize anything where the company's in the private sector steal our money via the government rather than
us being able to buy it directly. That is how capitalism is supposed to work in order to control costs. When they are getting money from the
government, they can charge anything they want and we have to pay for it.
...

... It has NOTHING to do with "privitizing companies"... it has EVERYTHING to do with allowing certain corporations to have a monopoly over certain
industries... This is NOT what happens in true Capitalism/free market, this is what happens under socialist mandates.

The Federal Trades Commission Act, signed into law by PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT President Woodrow Wilson in 1914, "was (supposedly) authorized to issue
“cease and desist” orders to large corporations to curb unfair trade practices", but in fact it just gave more power to certain large
corporations (ie Rockefeller Corporation, ExxonMobile, Fannie Mae, JP Morgan Chase, etc) and allowed them to become monopolies in the industries those
large corporations specialize in...

Instead this commission has restricted starting small businesses in favor for the larger corporations...

Originally posted by jacobe001
That's pretty much what happens when you privatize anything where the company's in the private sector steal our money via the government rather than
us being able to buy it directly. That is how capitalism is supposed to work in order to control costs. When they are getting money from the
government, they can charge anything they want and we have to pay for it.
...

... It has NOTHING to do with "privitizing companies"... it has EVERYTHING to do with allowing certain corporations to have a monopoly over certain
industries... This is NOT what happens in true Capitalism/free market, this is what happens under socialist mandates.

Lay off the Ayn Rand comic books.

It sure did happen in "true Capitalism/free market", e.g. USA from 1875-1910, because the rampant abuse of monopoly power from powerful
companies then is exactly what brought about "anti-trust" (anti-monopoly/price fixing) legislation. ("trusts" were the legal structure used then to
circumvent state regulations, now obsolete)

The Federal Trades Commission Act, signed into law by PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT President Woodrow Wilson in 1914, "was (supposedly) authorized to
issue “cease and desist” orders to large corporations to curb unfair trade practices", but in fact it just gave more power to certain large
corporations (ie Rockefeller Corporation, ExxonMobile, Fannie Mae, JP Morgan Chase, etc) and allowed them to become monopolies in the industries those
large corporations specialize in...

No it didn't. Evidence? Fannie Mae didn't exist in 1914, and the Standard Oil monopoly was successfully broken up and the resulting companies did
compete. The predecessors to JP Morgan were not monopolies, and JP Morgan was allowed to combine with Chase only after a late 1990's deregulation
which repealed the 1930's Glass-Steagall act, which itself had divided commercial from investment banking.

Government regulation is unsophisticated, but very effective in this matter.

And you can sure buy any health care you want directly without the government paying. Guess how much it costs? (Actually it is hard to find out, but
the answer is always "an enormous amount". I support government action to require firm, honored, public price lists.)

Actually, the Oxy epidemic is/was pretty bad. You had moms and kids thinking because the morphine was in pill form, it was less harmful then taking
morphine in the heroin form.
Now heroin addiction is on the rise,because once your hooked on morphine your hooked ,regardless of what form you take.

To launch Oxy, when it as first released,Phama Sales guys were GIVING IT AWAY in Southern Ohio and Virginia to cancer ridden coal miners,not realizing
that the children of the sick figured out you could crush up the pills and snort them and stay high for hours.

The epidemic of this situation escalated and by then it as too late. The drug was everywhere. Cheap, long lasting morphine. By prescription.

To be honest, they had to do something. Now we have a new generation of morphine errr heroin addicts running around from the suburbs to the cities
to go cop.

Just so you have your facts straight: The provision being discussed here is the original Medicare D developed by the GOP Bush Administration. Medicare
Part D forbids the federal government from negotiating prices with the drug companies. Its estimated that over the next 10 years, the rule will
generate approximately $500 billion for the industry with no tangible benefit for taxpayers or the economy as a whole. This was a GOP proposal and
Obama is holding it over Big Pharmas heads to get support for his overall healthcare plan. Politics as usual.

Just so you have your facts straight: The provision being discussed here is the original Medicare D developed by the GOP Bush Administration. Medicare
Part D forbids the federal government from negotiating prices with the drug companies. Its estimated that over the next 10 years, the rule will
generate approximately $500 billion for the industry with no tangible benefit for taxpayers or the economy as a whole. This was a GOP proposal and
Obama is holding it over Big Pharmas heads to get support for his overall healthcare plan. Politics as usual.

Ah. So we get the bills of socialized medicine, without the cost benefits of socialized medicine.

And so, why do the Republicans want to repeal Obamacare (which is a pro-insurance-company regulation scheme) and not actual socialized
medicine, i.e. Medicare and VA?

If socialized medicine is so bad, why do they want to inflict it on the elderly and veterans?

Originally posted by mbkennel
, why do the Republicans want to repeal Obamacare (which is a pro-insurance-company regulation scheme) and not actual socialized medicine, i.e.
Medicare and VA?

If socialized medicine is so bad, why do they want to inflict it on the elderly and veterans?

When medicare was passed in the mid 60's, the Republicans made the same argument then. Now, they cling to it ie a sacred cow.

Ironically (or not), the current 'obamacare' is basically an carbon copy of the Republican alternative to 'HillaryCare" in the 90's, which they
claimed was a 'free market alternative' and was pushed by then Pres Candidate Bob Dole.

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.